Finding and applying for funding: a very short course

Transcription

1 Finding and applying for funding: a very short course Aaron Trehub Assistant Dean for Technology and Technical Services Auburn University Libraries Auburn University Libraries Faculty Meeting November 1, 2011

2 What s an ADR? ADR = Associate Dean for Research Every college in the university has an ADR I m yours Inherited the position from Glenn Anderson last year

3 What s an ADR do? Serves as a liaison between the college and the Office of the Vice President for Research Attends monthly meetings with VPR John Mason, Associate VPR Carl Pinkert, and other OVPR/Office of Sponsored Programs staff members Passes along news, policies, and information Organizes little get-togethers like this one Encourages faculty to apply for external funding opportunities

4 About that encourages faculty to apply part Why apply for external funding?

5 Here are just a few reasons It supports your librarianship and research It raises your professional profile and helps you establish a national reputation It helps you make contacts in the profession, including people who can serve as referees It brings money to your college and to the university It can help you get tenure or get promoted It allows you to do interesting things that you might not be able to do otherwise

6 There s nothing out there for librarians Wrong. There are external funding opportunities for libraries and archives. The big three funders: IMLS (federal) National Leadership Grants (February 1) Connecting to Collections Statewide Implementation Grants (February 1) NEH (federal) Humanities Collections and Reference Resources (July 20) Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (private) Scholarly Communications & Info. Technology (contact Auburn OSP before approaching foundation)

7 Some more external sources NARA-NHPRC (federal) Digitizing Historical Records (June 9) Electronic Records Projects (June 7) Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (private) Digital Information Technology, including: Data and Computational Research (contact program officer) Scholarly Communication (ditto) Universal access to Knowledge (ditto) To find other external funding opportunities, set up a search profile in COS Pivot (demo in a few minutes)

8 And an internal funding source Auburn University Intramural Grants Program (AUIGP) Annual deadline: September 30 Three levels of funding: Seed Research/Scholarship Proposals (individual: up to $2,000 from OVPR) Exploratory Interdisciplinary Research/Scholarship Proposals (faculty from at least two departments/schools/colleges: up to $3,750 from OVPR) Developmental Interdisciplinary Research Scholarship Proposals (faculty from at least two departments/schools/colleges: between $25,000-$100,000 over three years from OVPR) Matching funds required

9 Finding funding opportunities Auburn subscribes to RefWorks-Community of Science (COS), a funding opportunities database and faculty expertise service The COS Pivot service is available through the Office of Sponsored Programs Web site at Contains info on thousands of federal and private funding opportunities Do a search or set up and save a search profile at OSP offers help, consultation, and support

10 Other resources An excellent free (i.e. non-subscription) source for federal grants is Grants.Gov: Central storehouse for information on over 1,000 grant programs and provides access to approximately $500 billion in annual awards Also serves as e-submission portal for most federal grant applications (e.g. for IMLS and NEH grant applications) The Foundation Center covers private philanthropy and funding opportunities in the United States: Offers some free guides to proposal writing and proposal budgeting Also contains IRS 990 and 990PF forms

11 Tips on applying for grants First, read the program guidelines carefully Contact the program officer and pitch your idea before starting work on an application (in the case of private foundations, please contact Auburn OSP first) If it s a multi-institution proposal, get your commitments up front and divvy up the work Allocate at least a month to put together the application. This means writing the narrative, preparing a work plan, compiling a budget, and assembling supporting documentation Pay special attention to significance ( So what? ) and sustainability ( How re you going to keep it going? ) Leave time for proof-reading and comments

12 And finally: Let OSP know what you re doing. They can help.

13 Contacts Aaron Trehub (ADR): Mark Dutton (OSP): Marc Haon (OSP): Tony Ventimiglia (OSP): Auburn OSP: